and he must pity the Poor as a father doth his children so pity them that he do something for them Princes and Iudges and Magistrates were not ordained altogether nor yet so much for their own sakes that they might have over whom to bear rule and to dominiere at pleasure as for the peoples sakes that the people might have to whom to resort and upon whom to depend for help and succour and relief in their necessities And they ought to remember that for this end GOD hath endued them with that power which others want that they might by their power help them to right who have not power to right themselves Hoc reges habent magnificum ingens c. Prodesse miseris supplices fido lare Protegere c. This is the very thing wherein the preeminence of Princes and Magistrates and great ones above the ordinary sort singularly consisteth and wherein specially they have the advantage and whereby they hold the title of Gods that they are able to do good and to help the distressed more than others are For which ability how they haue used it they stand accountable to him from whom they have received it and woe unto them if the accounts they bring in be not in some reasonable proportion answerable to the receipts Potentes potenter into whose hands much hath been given from their hands much will be required and the mighty ones if they have not done a mighty deale of good withall shall be mightily tormented And as they have received power from God so they do receive honours and services and tributes from their people for the maintenance of that power and these as wages by Gods righteous ordinance for their care and paines for the peoples good God hath imprinted in the naturall conscience of every man notions of fear and honour and reverence and obedience and subjection and contribution and other duties to be performed towards Kings and Magistrates and other superiours not onely for wrath but also for conscience sake and all this for the maintenance of that power in them by the right use whereof themselves are again maintained Now the same conscience which bindeth us who are under authority to the performance bindeth you who are in authority to the requitall of these duties I say the same Conscience though not the same wrath for here is the difference Both Wrath and Conscience bind us to our duties so that if we withdraw our subjection we both wound our own Consciences and incurre your just wrath but onely Conscience bindeth you to yours and not Wrath so that if ye withdraw your help we may not use wrath but must suffer it with patience and permit all to the judgement of your own consciences and of God the judge of all mens consciences But yet still in Conscience the obligation lyeth equally upon you and us As we are bound to give you honour so are you to give us safety as we to fear you so you to help us as we to fight for you so you to care for us as we to pay you tribute so you to do us right For For this cause pay we tribute and other duties unto you who are Gods ministers even because you ought to be attending continually upon this very thing to approve your selves as the ministers of God to us for good Oh that we could all superiours and inferiours both one and other remember what we owed each to other and by mutually striving to pay it to the utmost so endeavour our selves to God! But in the meane time we are still injurious if either we withdraw our subjection or you your help if either we cast off the duty of children or you the care of Fathers Time was when Iudges and Nobles and Princes delighted to be called by the name of Fathers The Philistims called their Kings by a peculiar appellative Abimelech as who say The King my Father In Rome the Senatours were of old time called Patres Fathers and it was afterwards accounted among the Romans the greatest title of honour that could be bestowed upon their Consuls Generals Emperours or whosoever had deserved best of the Common-wealth to have this addition to the rest of his stile Pater patriae a Father to his Country Naamans servants in 4 King· 5. call him Father My Father if the Prophet had commanded thee c. And on the other side David the King speaketh unto his Subjects as a Father to his children in Psal. 34. Come ye children c. and Solomon in the Proverbs every where My sonne even as Iob here accounteth himself a Father to the poor Certainly to shew that some of these had and that all good Kings and Governours should have a fatherly care over and bear a fatherly affection unto those that are under them All which yet seeing it is intended to be done in bonum universitatis must be so understood as that it may stand cum bono universitatis stand with equity and justice and with the common good For Mercy and Iustice must go together and help to temper the one the other The Magistrate and Governour must be a Father to the poor to protect him from injuries and to relieve his necessities but not to maintain him in idlenesse All that the Father oweth to the Child is not love and maintenance he oweth him too Education and he oweth him correction A Father may love his Childe too fondly and make him a wanton he may maintain him too highly and make him a prodigall But he must give him Nurture too as well as Maintenance lest he be better fed than taught and correct him too as well as love him lest he bring him most grief when he should reap most comfort from him Such a fatherly care ought the civil Magistrate to have over the poor He must carefully defend them from wrongs and oppressions he must providently take order for their convenient relief and maintenance But that is not all he must as well make provision to set them on work and see that they follow it and he must give them sharp correction when they grow idle stubborn dissolute or any way out of order This he should do and not leave the other undone There is not any speech more frequent in the mouthes of beggars and wanderers wherewith the Country now swarmeth then that men would be good to the poor and yet scarce any thing so much mistaken as that speech in both the termes of it most men neither understanding aright who are the poor nor yet what it is to be good to them Not he onely is good to the poor that delivereth him when he is oppressed nor is he onely good to the poor that relieveth him when he is distressed but he also is good to the poor that punisheth him when he is idle He is good to the poor that helpeth him when he wanteth and he
who can help it if a man will needs cherish an errour and persist in it But now if the conscience be onely doubtfull whether a thing be lawfull or no but have not as yet passed a peremptory judgement against it yea although it rather incline to think it unlawfull in that case if the Magistrate shall command it to be done the subject with a good conscience may do it nay he cannot with a good conscience refuse to do it though it be dubitante conscientiâ But you will yet say that in doubtfull cases the safer part is to be chosen So say I too and am content that rule should decide this question onely let it be rightly applyed Thou thinkest it safer where thou doubtest of the unlawfulnesse to forbear then to do as for example if thou doubtest whether it be lawfull to kneel at the Communion it is safest in thy opinion therefore for thee not to kneel So should I think too if thou wert left meerly to thine own liberty But thou dost not consider how thou art caught in thine own net and how the edge of thine own weapon may be turned upon thee point-blank not to be avoided thus If authority command thee to kneel which whether it be lawfull for thee to do or not thou doubtest it cannot choose but thou must needs doubt also whether thou maiest lawfully disobey or not Now then here apply thine own Rule In dubiis pars tutior and see what will come of it Judge since thou canst not but doubt in both cases whether it be not the safer of the two to obey doubtingly than to disobey doubtingly Tene certum demitte incertum is S. Gregory his rule where there is a certainty and an uncertainty let the uncertainty go and hold to that which is certain Now the generall is certain that thou art to obey the Magistrate in all things not contrary to the will of God but the particular is uncertain whether the thing now commanded thee by the Magistrate be contrary to the will of God I say uncertain to thee because thou doubtest of it Deal safely therefore and hold thee to that which is certain and obey But thou wilt yet alledge that the Apostle here condemneth the doing of any thing not onely with a gainsaying but even with a doubting conscience because doubting also is contrary to faith and he that doubteth is even for that condemned if he eat Oh beware of mis-applying Scripture it is a thing easily done but not so easily answered I know not any one gap that hath let in more and more dangerous errours into the Church than this that men take the words of the sacred Text fitted to particular occasions and to the condition of the times wherein they were written and then apply them to themselves and others as they find them without due respect had to the differences that may be between those times and cases and the present Sundry things spoken in Scripture agreeably to that infancy of the Church would sort very ill with the Church in her fulnesse of strength and stature and sundry directions very expedient in times of persecution and when believers lived mingled with Infidels would be very unseasonably urged where the Churc◠is in a peaceable and flourishing estate enjoying the favour and living under the protection of gracious and religious Princes Thus the Constitutions that the Apostles made concerning Deacons and Widowes in those primitive times are with much importunity but very importunely withall urged by the Disciplinarians And sundry other like things I might instance in of this kind worthy the discovery but that I fear to grow tedious Briefely then the Apostles whole discourse in this Chapter and so wheresoever else he toucheth upon the point of Scandals is to be understood onely in that case where men are left to their own liberty in the use of indifferent things the Romans Corinthians and others to whom S. Paul wrote about these matters being not limited any way in the exercise of their liberty therein by any over-ruling authority But where the Magistrates have interposed thought good upon mature advice to impose Laws upon those that are under them whereby their liberty is not infringed as some unjustly complain in the inward judgement but onely limited in the outward exercise of it there the Apostolical directions wil not hold in the same absolute manner as they were delivered to those whom they then concerned but only in the equity of them so far forth as the cases are alike with such meet qualifications mitigations as the difference of the cases otherwise doth require So that a man ought not out of private fancy or meerly because he would not be observed for not doing as others do or for any the like weak respects to do that thing of the lawfulness whereof he is not competently perswaded where it is free for him to do otherwise which was the case of these weak ones among the Romans for whose sakes principally the Apostle gave these directions But the authority of the Magistrate intervening so alters the case that such a forbearance as to them was necessary is to as many of us as are commanded to do this or that altogether unlawful in regard they were free we are bound for the reasons already shewn which I now rehearse not But you will yet say for in point of obedience men are very loth to yield so long as they can find any thing to plead those that lay these burdens upon us at leastwise should do well to satisfie our doubts and to inform our consciences concerning the lawfulnesse of what they enjoyn that so we might render them obedience with better cheerfulness How willing are we sinful men to leave the blame of our miscarriages any where rather than upon our selves But how is it not incongruous the while that those men should prescribe rules to their governours who can scarcely brook their governours should prescribe Laws to them It were good we would first learn how to obey ere we take upon us to teach our betters how to govern However what governours are bound to do or what is fit for them to do in the point of information that is not now the question If they fail in any part of their bounden duty they shall be sure to reckon for it one day but their failing cannot in the mean time excuse thy disobedience Although I think it would prove a hard task for whosoever should undertake it to shew that Superiours are alwayes bound to inform the consciences of their inferiours concerning the lawfulnesse of every thing they shall command If sometimes they do it where they see it expedient or needfull sometimes again and that perhaps oftner it may be thought more expedient for them and more conducible for the publick peace and safety onely to make known to the people what their pleasures are reserving to themselves the reasons thereof I am sure in the point
Either of them challenged the living child with a like eagernesse either of them accused other of the same wrong and with the same allegations neither was there witnesse or other evidence on either part to give light unto the matter yet Solomon by that wisdome which he had obtained from God found a meanes to search out the truth in this difficulty by making as if he would cut the child into halfes and give either of them one halfe at the mentioning whereof the compassion of the right mother betrayed the falshood of her clamorous competitor And we read in the Apocryphall Story of Susanna how Daniel by examining the two Elders severally and apart found them to differ in one circumstance of their relation and thereby discovered the whole accusation to be false Iudges for this reason were anciently called Cognitores and in approved Authors Cognoscere is as much as to doe the office of a Judge to teach Iudges that one chiefe point of their care should be to know the truth For if of private men and in things of ordinary discourse that of Solomon be true He that answereth a matter before he heareth it it is folly and shame unto him certainly much more is it true of publick Magistrates and in matters of Justice and Judgement by how much both the men are of better note and the things of greater moment But in difficult and intricate businesses covered with darknesse and obscurity and perplexed with many windings and turnings and cunning and crafty conveyances to finde a faire issue out and to spye light at a narrow hole and by wisdome and diligence to rip up a foule matter and search a cause to the bottome and make a discovery of all is a thing worthy the labour and a thing that will adde to the honour I say not onely of inferiour Governours but even of the supreme Magistrate the King It is the glory of God to conceale a thing but the honour of Kings is to search out the matter To understand the necessity of this duty consider First that as sometimes Democritus said the truth lyeth in profundo and in abdito dark and deep as in the bottom of a pit and it will ask some time yea and cunning too to find it out and bring it to light Secondly that through favour faction envy greedinesse ambition and otherwise innocency it self is often laden with false accusations You may observe in the Scriptures how Naboth Ieremy Saint Paul and others and you may see by too much experience in these wretched times how many men of faire and honest conversation have been accused and troubled without cause which if the Magistrate by diligent inquisition do not either prevent or help to the utmost of his endeavour he may soon unawares wrap himself in the guilt of innocent blood Thirdly that informations are for the most part partiall every man making the best of his owne tale and he cannot but often erre in judgement that is easily carried away with the first tale and doth not suspend till he have heard both parties alike Herein David failed when upon Ziba's false information he passed a hasty and injurious decree against Mephibosheth Solomon saith He that is first in his own tale seemeth righteous but then his neighbour cometh and searcheth him out Prov. 18. as we say commonly One tale is good till another be told Fourthly that if in all other things hastinesse and precipitancy be hurtfull then especially matters of justice would not be huddled up hand over-head but handled with mature deliberation and just diligent disquisition Cunctari judicantem decet imo oportet saith Seneca he that is to judge it is fit he should nay it is necessary he should proceed with convenient leisure Who judgeth otherwise and without this due search he doth not judge but guesse The good Magistrate had need of patience to heare and of diligence to search and of prudence to search out whatsoever may make for the discovery of the truth in an intricate and difficult cause The cause which I knew not I searched out That is the Magistrates third Duty There yet remaineth a fourth in these words I brake the jawes of the wicked and plucked the spoil out of his teeth Wherein Iob alludeth to ravenous and salvage beasts beasts of prey that lye in wait for the smaller Cattel and when they once catch them in their paws fasten their teeth upon them and teare them in pieces and devour them Such Lions and Wolfs and Bears and Tygers are the greedy great ones of this world who are ever ravening after the estates and the livelihoods of their meaner neighbours snatching and biting and devouring and at length eating them up and consuming them Iob here speaketh of Dentes and Molares Teeth and Iaws and he meaneth the same thing by both Power abused to oppression But if any will be so curiously subtill as to distinguish them thus he may doe it Dentes they are the long sharp teeth the fore-teeth Dentes eorum arma sagitâ—ae saith David Their teeth are speares and arrowes Molares à molendo so called from grinding they are the great double teeth the jaw-teeth Those are the Biters these the Grinders these and those together Oppressors of all sorts Usurers and prouling Officers and slye Merchants and errant Informers and such kinde of Extortioners as sell time and truck for expedition and snatch and catch at petty advantages these use their teeth most these are Biters The first I know not whether or no the worst sort of them in the holy Hebrew tongue hath his name from biting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naschak that is to bite and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neschek that is Usury Besides these Biters there are Grinders too men whose teeth are Lapidâ—s Molures as the over and the nether mill-stone Depopulators and racking Landlords and such great ones as by heavy pressures and burdens and sore bargains break the backs of those they deale withall These first by little and little grind the faces of the poor as small as dust powder and when they have done at length eat them up one after another as it were bread as the Holy Ghost hath painted them out under those very phrases Now how the Magistrate should deal with these grinders and biters Iob here teacheth him he should break their jawes and pluck the spoileÌ„ out of their teeth that is quell and crush the mighty Oppressor and deliver the Oppressed from his injuries For to break the jaw or the cheek-bone or the teeth is in Scripture-phrase as much as to abate the pride and suppresse the power and curb the insolency of those that use their might to overbeare right So David saith in the third Psalm that God had saved him by smiting his enemies upon the cheek-bone and breaking the teeth of the ungodly And in Psalm 58. he
to heare with other mens eares and to proceed upon information those men deserve a rebuke who being by their office to ripen causes for judgement and to facilitate the Magistrates care and paines for inquisition doe yet either for feare or favour or negligence or a fee keep back true and necessary informations or else for spight or gaine clogge the Courts with false or trifling ones But most of all the Magistrates themselves deserve a rebuke if either they be hasty to acquit a man upon his owne bare deniall or protestation for si inficiari sufficiet ecquiâ— erit nocens as the Oratour pleaded before Iulian the Emperour if a deniall may serve the turne none shall bee guilty or if hasty to condemne a man upon anothers bare accusation for si accusasse sufficiet ecquis erit innocens as the Emperour excellently replyed upon that Oratour if an accusation may serve the turne none shall be innocent or if they suffer themselves to be possessed with prejudice and not keepe one eare open as they write of Alexander the Great for the contrary party that they may stand indifferent till the truth be throughly canvassed or if to keep causes long in their hands they either delay to search the truth out that they may know it or to decide the cause according to the truth when they have found it And as for Courage to execute Iustice which is the last Duty what need we trouble our selves to seek out the causes when we see the effects so daily and plainly before our eyes whether it be through his own cowardise or inconstancy that he keepeth off or that a fair word whistleth him off or that a great mans letter staveth him off or that his own guilty conscience doggeth him off or that his hands are manacled with a bribe that he cannot fasten or whatsoever other matter there is in it sure we are the Magistrate too often letteth the wicked carry away the spoyle without breaking a jaw of him or so much as offering to pick his teeth It was not well in Davids time and yet David a Godly King when complainingly he asked the Question Who will stand up with me against the evil doers It was not well in Solomons time and yet Solomon a peaceable King when considering the Oppressions that were done under the Sun he saw that on the side of the oppressors there was power but as for the oppressed they had no comforter We live under the happy government of a godly and peaceable King Gods holy name be blessed for it and yet GOD knoweth and we all know it is not much better now nay God grant it be not generally even much worse Receive now in the last place and as the third and last inference a word of Exhortation and it shall be but a word You whom God hath called to any honour or office appertaining to justice as you tender the glory of God and the good of the Common-wealth as you tender the honour of the King and the prosperity of the Kingdome as you tender the peace and tranquillity of your selves and neighbours as you tender the comfort of your own consciences and the salvation of your own souls set your selves throughly and cheerfully and constantly and conscionably to discharge with faithfulnesse all those duties which belong unto you in your severall stations and callings to advance to the utmost of your power the due administration and execution of Iustice. Do not not decline those burdens which cleave to the honours you sustain Do not post off those businesses from your selves to others which you should rather do then they or at least may as well do as they Stand up with the zeal of Phinees and by executing judgement help to turn away those heavy plagues which God hath already begun to bring upon us and to prevent those yet heavier ones which having so rightly deserved we have all just cause to fear Breath fresh life into the languishing lawes by mature and severe and discreet execution Put on Righteousnesse as a Garment and cloathe your selves with Iudgement as with a Robe and Diadem Among so many Oppressions as in these evil dayes are done under the Sun to whom should the fatherlesse and the widow and the wronged complain but to you whence seek for relief but from you Be not you wanting to their necessities Let your eyes be open unto their miseries and your ears open unto their cryes and your hands open unto their wants Give friendly Counsel to those that stand need of your Direction afford convenient help to those that stand need of your assistance carry a Fatherly affection to all those that stand need of any comfort protection or relief from you Be eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and be you instead of fathers to the poor But yet do not countenance no not a poor man in his cause farther than he hath equity on his side Remember one point of wisdom not to be too credulous of every suggestion information But do your best to spie out the chinks starting holes and secret conveyances packings of cunning crafty companions and when you have found them out bring them to light do exemplary justice upon them Sell not your ears to your servants nor tye your selves to the informations of some one or a few or of him that cometh first but let every party have a fair an equal hearing Examin proofs Consider circumstances be content to hear simple men tell their tales in such language as they have think no pains no patience too much to sift out the truth Neither by inconsiderate haste prejudice any mans right nor weary him out of it by torturing delayes The cause which you know not use all diligence convenient both care and speed to search it out But ever withall remember your standing is slippery you shall have many and sore assaults very shrewd temptations so that unless you arm your selves with invincible resolution you are gone The wicked ones of this world will conjure you by your old friendship and acquaintance by all the bonds of neighbourhood and kindnesse bribe your Wives Children Servants to corrupt you procure great mens Letters or favourites as engines to move you convey a bribe into your own bosomes but under a handsomer name in some other shape so cunningly secretly sometimes that your selves shall not know it to be a bribe when you receive it Harden your faces and strengthen your resolutions with a holy obstinacy against these and all other like temptations Count him an enemy that will alledge friendship to pervert justice When you sit in the place of justice think you are not now Husbands or Parents or Neighbours but Iudges Contemn the frowns and the favours and the letters of great ones in comparison of that trust which greater ones than they the King State a yet greater
may without prejudice admit of some restraint in the outward practice of it Ab illicitis semper quandoque à licitis I think it is S. Gregories A Christian must never doe unlawfull nor yet alwayes lawfull things St. Paul had liberty to eat flesh and he used that liberty and ate flesh yet he knew there might be some cases wherein to abridge himself of the use of that liberty so farr as not to eat flesh whilst the world standeth But what those Restraints are and how farr they may be admitted without prejudice done to that liberty that we may the better understand let us goe on to The fourth Position Sobriety may and ought to restrain us in the outward practice of our Christian liberty For our Dye◠all fish and flesh and fowl and fruits and spices are lawfull for us as well as Bread and herbs but may we therefore with thriftless prodigality and exquisite ryot fare deliciously and sumptuously every day under pretence of Christian liberty Likewise for our Apparel all stuffs and colours the richest silks and furrs and dyes are as lawfull for us as cloth and leather and sheeps russet Christian liberty extendeth as well to one as another But doe we think that liberty will excuse our pride and vanity and excesse if we ruffle it out in silks and scarlets or otherwise in stuff colour or fashion unsuitably to our years sex calling estate or condition In all other things of like nature in our buildings in our furniture in our retinues in our disports in our recreations in our society in our Mariages in other things we ought as well to consider what in Christian sobriety is meet for us to doe as what in Christian liberty may be done Scarce is there any one thing wherein the Devil putteth slurrs upon us more frequently yea and more dangerously too because unsuspected than in this very thing in making us take the uttermost of our freedom in the use of indifferent things It therefore concerneth us so much the more to keep a sober watch over our selves and souls in the use of Gods good Creatures lest otherwise under the fair title and habit of Christian liberty we yeeld our selves over to a carnal licentiousnesse The fifth position As Sobriety so Charity also may and ought to restrain us in the outward exercise of our Christian liberty Charity I say both to our selves and others First to our selves for regular charity beginneth there If we are to cut off our right hand and to pluck out the right eye and to cast them both from us when they offend us much more then ought we to deny our selves the use of such outward lawfull things as by experience we have found or have otherwise cause to suspect to be hurtfull either to our bodies or souls So a man may and should refrain from meats which may endanger his bodily health But how much more then from every thing that may endanger the health of his soul If thou findest thy self enflamed with lust by dancing if enraged with choler by game if tempted to covetousnesse pride uncleannesse superstition cruelty any sin by reason of any of the Creatures it is better for thee to make a covenant with thine eyes and ears and hands and sences so far as thy condition and calling will warrant thee not to have any thing to doe with such things than by gratifying them therein cast both thy self and them into hell Better by our voluntary abstinence to depart with some of our liberty unto the Creatures than by our voluntary transgression forfeit all and become the Devils captives But Charity though it begin at home yet it will abroad and not resting at our selves reacheth to our brethren also of whom we are to have a due regard in our use of the Creatures An argument wherein St. Paul often enlargeth himself as in Rom. 14. and 1 Cor. 8. the whole Chapters throughout and in a great part of 1 Cor. 10. The resolution every where is that all things be done to edification that things lawfull become inexpedient when they offend rather than edifie that though all things indeed are pure yet it is evil for that man which useth them with offence that albeit flesh and wine and other things be lawfull yet it is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine nor to doe any thing whereby a mans brother stumbleth or is offended or is made weak Hitherto appertaineth that great and difficult common-place of scandal so much debated and disputed of by Divines The Questions and Cases are manifold not now to be rehearsed much less resolved in particular But the Position is plain in the general that in case of scandal for our weak brothers sake we may and sometimes ought to abridge our selves of some part of our lawfull Liberty Besides these two Sobriety and Charity there is yet one restraint more which ariseth from the duty we owe to our Superiours and from the bond of Civil obedience which if it had been by all men as freely admitted as there is just cause it should how happy had it been for the peace of this Church Concerning it let this be our Sixth position The determination of Superiours may and ought to restrain us in the outward exercise of our Christian liberty We must submit our selves to every Ordinance of man saith S. Peter 1 Pet. 2.13 and it is necessary we should doe so for so is the will of God Ver. 15. Neither is it against Christian liberty if we doe so for we are still as free as before rather if we doe not so we abuse our liberty for a cloak of maliciousnesse as it followeth there ver 16. And St. Paul telleth us we must needs be subject not only for fear because the Magistrate carrieth not the Sword in vain but also for Conscience sake because the powers that are are ordained of God This duty so fully pressed and so uniformly by these two grand Apostles is most apparent in private societies In a family the Master or Pater familias who is a kind of petty Monarch there hath authority to prescribe to his children and servants in the use of those indifferent things whereto yet they as Christians have is much liberty as he The servant though he be the Lords free-man yet is limited in his dyet lodging livery and many other things by his Master and he is to submit himself to his Masters appointment in these things though perhaps in his private affection he had rather his Master had appointed otherwise and perhaps withall in his private judgement doth verily think it fitter his Master should appoint otherwise If any man under colour of Christian liberty shall teach otherwise and exempt servants from the obedience of their Masters in such things S. Paul in a holy indignation inveigheth against such a man not without some bitterness in the last Chapter of this